We’ve been busy doing a bit of Spring cleaning here at Property Hive and have just performed a release that aims to simplify and streamline your experience of using our plugin.

As of version 2.2 of Property Hive, the Template Assistant add on has been removed and it’s functionality merged into the core plugin.

What is the Template Assistant add on?

Property Hive has always had an extra add on available called Template Assistant. This add on was separate to the core plugin and was primarily intended to support with basic frontend styling.

When it was built it contained functionality regarding:

• Search result layouts
• Control over search forms and the filters that are included
• Flags allowing you to display the availability over thumbnails

As time went on, other features were added such as:

• Additional fields allowing you to create extra fields we didn’t have by default
• Text substitution giving you the ability to change words and labels throughout the plugin (e.g. rename ‘Offers’ to ‘Note of Interest’)

Let’s take a look at what’s changed in version 2.2 of Property Hive:

What’s changed?

Template Assistant tab remains for now

If you have previously had the Template Assistant add on active, the settings tab will remain for now. Here you’ll now find a temporary page with instructions and links on how to find the functionality that’s moved:

New ‘Frontend‘ settings area

Settings related to ‘Search Results‘, ‘Search Forms‘ and ‘Flags‘ are now under a new settings tab called ‘Frontend‘. This is where all website and styling related options will now live.

New ‘Field Manager‘ settings area and ‘Custom Fields‘ renamed

Previously, ‘Custom Fields’ have been accessed from the settings area of the core plugin. ‘Custom Fields’ (now ‘Field Values’) is where you customise the values that show in dropdowns, such as property type and status.

‘Additional Fields‘ appeared separately as a feature in the Template Assistant add on. ‘Additional FIelds’ is where you can add additional fields to any record in Property Hive.

In order to simplify things we’ve merged the settings relating to field management together into a new tab in the settings area called ‘Field Manager‘. Here you’ll find the Custom Fields functionality from the core plugin (renamed to ‘Field Values‘), as well as the ‘Additional Fields‘ feature from the Template Assistant.

In summary, anything related to customisable fields now lives under the ‘Field Manager‘ settings tab.

‘Text Substitution‘ moved to the ‘General‘ settings

Last but not least, the text substitution feature has been moved to the ‘General‘ tab:

Why change this?

Most sites have Template Assistant installed

We found that most sites that have Property Hive installed, also have the Template Assistant installed as well. That’s because the features included in Template Assistant are essential core features that help getting up and running with Property Hive.

We can put functionality where it belongs

We’re holding our hands up and admitting that some functionality shouldn’t have gone into the Template Assistant. Additional fields and text substitution, for example, aren’t template related and apply to the plugin as a whole. These changes mean we can put features in a more logical place where they feel more at home.

Big things are coming

These changes also mark the start of some exciting improvements coming up over the next few months. This task of merging functionality into the core plugin sets us on a good footing to power ahead with the fun stuff.

One less plugin for you to worry about

If nothing else, it’s one less plugin to have installed on your site that you need to keep updated.

How do I benefit from this?

It’s easy. Simply update to the latest version of Property Hive, version 2.2.

When you update, we’ll automatically deactivate the existing Template Assistant add on if it’s currently active.

Once you’re up to date, you’ll find all of the new and moved functionality ready to go.

The post Template Assistant is now part of the Property Hive core plugin appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

Sticking with that theme, we’ve just released version 3.0.32 which gives you even more control over how frequently the feeds automatically run.

When creating an import you’ll now have the option to choose the exact number of minutes, hours, days or weeks between imports running:

Depending on how often your property stock updates, how many properties you have, and the CRM you’re importing from, you can now set this accordingly.

This level of customisation means you can get on with other stuff safe in the knowledge that your property imports are in hand, and everything’s up to date.

If you have a Property Hive Pro subscription you’ll be able to update to this latest version of the Property Import add on straight away through WordPress. If you’re new to Property Hive, why not see what all the fuss is about and give our 7  day free trial a whirl?

The post We’re giving you more control over import frequency appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

Since then, things have moved on and they now have a new API available to use. We’re pleased to announce that, in line with this, we’ve now updated the Property Import add on to support this new API.

The new API integration has improved capabilities over the old XML feel including pagination and filtering.

How to import properties from Property Finder UAE to WordPress

Step 1: Install the Property Hive Property Import add on

Step 2: Navigate to ‘Property Hive > Import Properties‘

Step 3: Click ‘Create Import‘

Step 4: Enter your Property Finder API Key and API secret. To get these, open the PF Expert application and navigate to the ‘API Credentials‘ section under the Developer Resources tab in the left sidebar. From here, you can generate a new API key and API secret. Be sure to use the type as ‘API Integration‘.

With the import now created your properties will feed automatically from Property Finder, ready for displaying on your website.

Property Hive Pro users can use this functionality straight away. For new users, we offer a 7 day trial.

The post Import Properties From Property Finder UAE Using Their API appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

Over the coming weeks we’re making some improvements to the way support requests are submitted and managed. These changes are designed to remove friction from the support process for everybody’s benefit.

From the 7th April, all support requests will be submitted through a support form on our website. Our current support email address will be deprecated from this date.

This post explains what’s changing, why we’re doing it, and what the new process will look like for you.

Why we’re making this change

Until now, most support enquiries have come directly to our general support email inbox. Whilst this has served us well, email support has limitations such as:

• Important details are often missing in the first email
• We spend time going back and forth gathering context
• It’s harder to prioritise effectively
• We have less visibility of common issue patterns

Gathering the right information from the start will allow us to deal with your requests more effectively. The information you submit will help us to route enquiries, prioritise support consistently and improve security when site access is required.

What’s changing

• Support requests will only be accepted via our online support form
• Our current support email address will be deprecated
• Direct emails to our new support inbox will not be received
• You may still receive replies from our support email address if you’ve submitted a request through the form but new enquiries must begin there

What’s not changing

• The scope of support we provide
• Our commitment to resolving technical issues
• Our tone or responsiveness

If anything, this change should help us assist you more efficiently and with clearer context from the outset.

How the new support process works

The form guides you through a few short steps so we can understand your request properly.

Depending on the type of enquiry (Support, Billing/Account, or Sales), you’ll be asked to provide:

• Your subscription or licence details
• The website URL in question
• The area of Property Hive the issue relates to (Core, Imports, Exports, Add-ons, etc.)
• A clear title and description
• Optional attachments such as screenshots or logs

Providing this information upfront means we can focus immediately on diagnosing the issue rather than gathering basics.

If you email the support address with a new request you’ll receive an automatic reply directing you to the form.

Ongoing conversations will still happen via email

Once your support request has been submitted and a ticket has been created nothing changes about how we communicate going forward.

You can:

• Reply to our responses by email as usual
• Include other people (such as developers or colleagues) in the conversation
• Continue the discussion without logging in anywhere

Accessing Your Website for Diagnosis

As part of this update, we’re also tightening how site access is handled. Where access to your WordPress admin area would help us diagnose an issue, we now ask that you create a temporary login URL. This is a simple process which you can find guidance on in our documentation.

This allows you to create secure, time limited access without sharing permanent credentials.

We will:

• Use access for diagnosis purposes only
• Not make changes to your site
• Provide clear instructions or snippets for you to implement where required

This approach improves security for both you and us.

Support tickets in your account area

If you’re a Property Hive customer with an account you’ll still be able to submit and view support tickets from within your account area.

This remains an optional convenience and isn’t required for developers, agencies, or third parties working on a site.

How this helps you

By submitting requests through the new form, you should notice:

• More efficient initial responses
• Fewer follow up questions asking for basic details
• Better continuity when multiple people are involved in the same site
• Clearer tracking of issues and resolutions

It also helps us spot trends and improve documentation, features, and add-ons based on real usage.

When this will happen

The official transition date is the 7th April but we’d encourage you to begin using the support form from today.

If you have any questions about the new process, or feedback on how it works, we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for your continued support and for helping us make Property Hive better for everyone.

The post We’re Updating How Support Works at Property Hive appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

With that release back in April 2024 we added support for Google reCAPTCHA v2 and v3, as well as hCaptcha.

Continuing on with this we’ve also just added support for the Cloudflare Turnstile too. According to the Cloudflare website “The solution automatically chooses from a rotating suite of browser challenges that work behind the scenes, looking for signals there is a human user.“.

To use Cloudflare Turnstile in your Property Hive forms, simply navigate to ‘Property Hive > Settings > General > CAPTCHA‘ in the WordPress backend. From there toggle on Turnstile and enter the Site Key and Secret from your Cloudflare account.

We hope this addition makes managing enquiries even smoother. As always, we’ll keep expanding Property Hive to give you the best tools for your estate agency website.

The post Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA Support Added appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

If you have a website built on a platform such as Wix, Webflow or Squarespace, you might have struggled to find a simple way to add your property listings. Most website builders do not offer a built in option for displaying properties and creating a custom integration can end up being expensive or time consuming.

Introducing PropEmbed

To solve this, we’ve created PropEmbed, a standalone product built by the Property Hive team. PropEmbed is a multi-platform property widget builder that uses live data from your CRM to create fully customisable widgets. Once your widget is ready, you simply copy and paste the embed code into your website and your listings will appear straight away.

We’re really pleased to share this with you. Let’s take a closer look at PropEmbed and learn how you can use it to display your listings on any modern website platform.

What PropEmbed Is

PropEmbed is a property widget builder that makes it easy to display your property listings on any modern website platform. You simply design your widget, connect your CRM and copy the embed code into your website. Your listings will appear straight away and stay up to date with your CRM.

There’s nothing to install, no coding is required and everything works through your browser.

Why We Built It

Our mission at Property Hive is to build tools that make building property websites more accessible for both estate agents and developers.

We often hear from estate agents and developers who want to use website builders like Wix or Webflow but still need a property feed that stays in sync with their CRM. The options have been limited until now, and many users end up asking questions such as:

• How do I add my property listings to Wix?
• Can I show my CRM properties on Webflow?
• What do I use if my site isn’t built on WordPress?

Many agents already use Property Hive for WordPress, and that remains the best choice when you need deep customisation or a fully tailored estate agency website. But not everyone works on WordPress, and some teams prefer platforms like Wix or Webflow. PropEmbed was created to support those situations, giving you a simple way to display property listings wherever your website is hosted.

What PropEmbed Lets You Do

Design

PropEmbed gives you a flexible way to display your property listings on almost any website. You can create a custom widget that suits the design of your site by controlling the colours, text, sizing and what information appears for each property.

This short demo shows inside the PropEmbed widget builder, where you can see options for layout, spacing and colours.

Using this interface, estate agents can customise widgets to match any brand style.

Try it now

Import

PropEmbed connects directly to your CRM, so once an import is running your listings stay up to date automatically. As shown beneath, imports can be managed in the account area of PropEmbed.

Embed property listings into a website

Your widget will work with platforms like Wix, Webflow, Squarespace, Shopify and most custom built sites. When your widget is ready, you simply copy and paste a short embed code like the one below into your website builder and your properties will appear immediately.

Main Features

Works with major UK CRMs

Your listings update automatically based on your CRM data.

Customisable designs

You can control colours, fonts, text, sizing, layout and property details.

Copy and paste embed

PropEmbed generates a short embed code that works in website builders, including Wix, Webflow, Squarespace and Shopify.

Create multiple widgets

Create unlimited widgets for displaying across your website in different places. For example, you might have a ‘Recent Properties’ widget for your home page in addition to the main property results page.

Multi platform compatible

Embed your custom widget to display your listings on any modern website platform.

No code

Estate agents, marketing teams, web designers and developers can all use PropEmbed with very little setup.

Who It’s For

PropEmbed is suitable for anyone who needs to embed property listings into a website without building a custom integration. It’s particularly useful for:

• Estate agents
• Developers working across multiple platforms
• Designers using website builders like Wix, Webflow or Squarespace
• Marketing teams creating landing pages or campaign sites

How It Works

Quick Steps

1. Visit propembed.com
2. Connect your CRM
3. Build and personalise your widget
4. Copy the embed code
5. Paste the code it into your website builder
6. Your properties will appear instantly

This approach works on almost any modern platform that accepts HTML embeds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need WordPress to use PropEmbed?

No. PropEmbed works independently of WordPress and supports most website builders.

Can I customise the widget?

Yes. You can choose layouts, colours, spacing, fonts and which property details to display.

Does it work with my CRM?

PropEmbed connects with the main UK CRMs (e.g Alto, Street, Loop, 10ninety, Dezrez, Jupix, SME Professional and many more).  Please email info@propembed.com if your CRM is not listed and we will do our best to fulfill your requirements.

Do I Need Coding Skills to Embed Property Listings Into a Website?

No coding is required. You simply copy and paste an embed code into your website.

Try PropEmbed

PropEmbed is available to explore today, and you can try the widget builder for free. Head to propembed.com to begin.

The post How to Embed Property Listings into Wix, Webflow, Squarespace or Any Website appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

The update that features in version 2.1.11 tracks leads through enquiries by storing the data relating to the original lead in a cookie and then passing that data into Property Hive when an enquiry is made.

Why is lead tracking important for estate agents?

Knowing where your leads come from can be just as valuable as the leads themselves. A potential buyer might find you through a Google Ad, a Facebook campaign, an organic property search or through a range of other channels. Without proper tracking it’s almost impossible to see which of these marketing channels are actually driving enquiries and therefore which ones are potentially wasting your budget.

That’s where lead tracking comes in and, it can be super useful. By following a potential buyer’s journey from the moment they land on your site to the point they submit a property enquiry, you gain a picture of what’s working and what isn’t. These insights then help you to:

• Identify your most effective marketing channels

• Understand buyer intent and behaviour

• Make smarter marketing decisions

• Measure ROI with confidence

What is lead tracking with UTM tags?

Before we get onto the new lead tracking functionality included in the latest version of Property Hive, let’s first understand what UTM tags are and how they relate to lead tracking.

A UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) is a small piece of text added to the end of a website link that helps you track where your visitors are coming from. These snippets of information might tell you that a visitor came from a Facebook ad, through paid search, or via your quarterly newsletter.

Here’s an example of UTM tags being used in a URL:

We won’t go into how to add UTM tags in this post, but it’s useful to know that they can be created for virtually any traffic source. If you have a marketing professional supporting you, this is exactly the kind of thing they can help with but if you feel confident, it’s something you can easily try yourself. Essentially any time you link to your website, by using UTM tags, you can track where your visitors are coming from.

How do I track leads in Property Hive?

With the latest version of the Property Hive core plugin installed, any page visits to your website that contain UTM tags will be captured and stored accordingly. If someone then ends up on a property details page and makes an enquiry, the UTM tags will be automatically assigned to the enquiry to give you visibility on where it originated from.

This information will be visible from the main enquiries list under Property Hive > Enquiries:

In addition, this information is also available to view on the enquiry itself in a new lead tracking meta box:

What about GDPR?

The information being stored does not include any personal data and is limited to marketing source information such as campaign and channel details. It’s also not being used to identify individuals or for any kind of retargeting.

Because of this, GDPR consent isn’t required specifically for this tracking. Saying that, as with any data collection on your website, it’s good practice to mention this in your privacy policy so visitors are aware that marketing data is being recorded.

How can I access this feature in Property Hive?

Everything mentioned in this post is included and free to use within the core plugin. If you’re interested in lead tracking for your estate agency you car start by downloading the free core Property Hive plugin today.

The post New in Property Hive: Lead Tracking for Estate Agents appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

We’re excited to announce a new update to Property Hive that helps your property pages stand out in Google and AI-powered search tools.

If your WordPress site uses the Yoast SEO or All in One SEO plugins, we’ll now automatically add Schema.org RealEstateListing structured data to your property detail pages.

This allows search engines and AI systems like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to better understand your listings leading to improved visibility, accuracy, and discoverability.

What is Schema markup and why does it matter?

Schema markup structures your data so that search engines and AI models can interpret your content precisely by clearly defining key information in an easily digestible format.

When search engine bots crawl your property pages, they examine the site’s source code. It’s difficult for them to know the page is about a property, let alone which bit of the page’s code is the price, bedrooms, address and more.

Schema markup looks a little bit like this:

When you add the RealEstateListing schema, you signal to Google, ChatGPT, and other platforms that your page represents a property listing, specifying what’s offered and its price.

That clarity can bring big benefits:

Richer search results – prices, addresses, and images may appear directly in listings.

Better SEO understanding – search engines can categorise your pages accurately.

Improved AI visibility – tools like ChatGPT and Copilot can extract reliable property data when users search for homes in your area.

Future-proofing – as AI-driven search grows, your data is already structured and ready to be surfaced correctly.

What’s new?

When you activate Yoast SEO or AIOSEO, Property Hive will automatically enhance its Schema graph to include key property information, such as:

• Price and currency
• Sale or rental status
• Bedrooms and bathrooms
• Address, postcode, and coordinates
• Photos
• Listing date

Everything is generated automatically from your existing property data, saving you the need for any extra setup.

How to get it

This feature is available now in the latest version of Property Hive, version 2.1.10. Simply update via your WordPress dashboard and the new schema details will be added to your property pages automatically.

You can test your pages using https://validator.schema.org. Just enter one of your property URL’s and you’ll see the information available to the spiders indexing the page.

The post Property Hive Adds RealEstateListing Schema Support appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

Why is this useful?

There are two main scenarios where this new functionality shines:

Migrating to a new site

If you’re moving from one WordPress site to another, you can now seamlessly pull all of your existing properties across without the need for complex manual exports or third party tools.

Running a secondary website

Perhaps you have a main website with your entire portfolio of properties, but you also want to run a second site that focuses on a specific niche such as new builds, premium listings, or holiday rentals. With this update you can set up a direct import so that only the properties you want appear on your secondary site.

How it works

Setting up a Property Hive to Property Hive import is simple:

1. Make sure you’re running the Property Import add-on (Pro subscription required)
2. Create a new import in WordPress under ‘Property Hive > Import Properties‘
3. Select “WordPress site running Property Hive” as the format
4. Enter the URL of your primary site

That’s it! Your properties will begin syncing automatically whereby we’ll obtain them using the WordPress REST API.

Get Started Today

If you already have our Property Import add on installed, update to version 3.0.9 to start using this new feature straight away.

The post Now Import Properties Directly from Another Property Hive Website appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.

On the 15th January 2016 I released the very first iteration of our now-popular Property Import add on for Property Hive. Little did I know at the time that it would change the course of my life and nearly 10 years later, I would still be still actively developing it.

In that very first version the import add on supported one format, BLM, and it wasn’t even automated. You had to manually upload the BLM file in question. As demand grew, support for more formats and CRMs were supported, new settings were added, and of course automating these imports became a key feature.

But with that growth came inevitable challenges. As more features and formats were added we started to get bloated code, new settings just placed anywhere they would fit into the current UI, and as time went on, an interface that just felt a little dated.

The import add on is, and has always been, our most popular feature so we felt that it’s time to give it some love which is why today, we’re pleased to announce version 3.0 is now available.

What’s new in version 3.0?

If you’d prefer to have me personally walk you through the updates these can be found in the video below:

Alternatively you can also read about the updates below:

Built from the ground up

Just like with a house, the foundations of any software are paramount to it’s stability and longevity.

That’s why we didn’t just tweak version 2. We started from scratch. A complete rebuild of the plugin with stability, performance, and scalability at its core.

Version 3.0 contains approximately 70,000 fewer lines of code than its predecessor. It’s cleaner, leaner, and built to be easier to maintain, making it more straightforward to add support for new CRMs and formats in the future.

Improved UI

Straight away you’ll notice the updated header where we’ve added clear buttons to access documentation and to create a new import.

A tabbed navigation bar makes it possible to jump between different sections and a new ‘Settings’ area has been introduced. We’ve moved some settings from being at a per-import level, to a global level.

For most agents with one import in place this won’t make a difference, but for agents or portals that have multiple feeds setup this makes managing imports easier; you can now change the settings in one place as opposed to having to go into each of the imports individually.

The main imports table is similar to version 2 but with the addition of a filter to filter imports, which is useful if you have lots of imports set up.

Editing imports made easier

Following on from the above, one of most noticeable changes is the revamped screen for creating and editing imports. Over time, this area had grown out of control as we added more functionality, making it increasingly difficult to navigate.

Previously, this process was handled through a step-by-step wizard with long, unstructured pages. There was little prioritisation of settings, and finding what you needed often meant scrolling through everything.

In version 3 we’ve replaced this with a clean, tabbed layout. This new design makes it far easier to navigate import settings. You can now jump directly to the section you need, and related settings are grouped together logically.

Real-time progress indicator

My personal favourite addition; you can now see in real-time exactly what the import is doing:

As the import parses, imports and removes properties, this will be reflected in the main imports table. No more guessing or having to check the logs to see where it’s up to.

Support for generic XML and CSV files

Ok I lied, maybe this is my favourite addition. There’s just too many to choose from.

We’ve seen it countless times where an agency doesn’t use one of the CRMs we support; maybe they’ve built their own CRM, or they use software from another corner of the earth.

Previously, unless this CRM could export the data in one of the formats we support, we couldn’t help. That is until now…

As long as the third party can provide data in XML or CSV, regardless of the structure or schema, we can now import it.

Simply enter the URL to the file, select which fields in the data denote the property and unique ID fields.

Then using our new ‘Field Rules‘ section (More about field rules below) you can specify which field in the XML or CSV relates to which field in Property Hive.

Field rules

A main focus when revamping this import add on plugin has been to look at where your pain points are.

We’ve already addressed some of these above with the new layouts etc, however a common support query is where an agent wants to customise how the data is imported and overwrite how we do it by default.

Maybe they want to change the format of the display address, use a different field from the CRM data for the price, or maybe they’ve added some additional fields to Property Hive and want to import into these.

Previously this would be a case of needing to write a PHP snippet. Yuk! Nobody wants to be doing that. That’s why we’ve added the new ‘Field Rules‘ section to an imports settings. Now you can override the default import functionality by building your own rules for maximum control over which data is imported where.

And more…

• We’ve added the ability to ‘kill’ an import that is currently running should you wish to stop the import prematurely.
• We’ve added the ability to clone or duplicate existing imports.
• You can now run individual imports manually. Previously you could run imports manually but this would run all of them.
• You can order the main imports table by format, last ran or next due by clicking the column heading.
• We’ve optimised imports resulting in less database queries and faster imports.
• Under the ‘Advanced‘ tab of an import’s settings you can specify limits on the number of properties imported.
• Under the ‘Advanced‘ tab of an import’s settings you can specify limits on the number of images imported per property.
• We’ve added the ‘only import updated properties‘ setting to all formats where applicable (i.e. where we receive a modified date in the data).
• A ‘Test Details‘ button added to all formats.
• Imports improved to continue from where they last got up to should they fall over for whatever reason.
• We’ve removed support for ten formats. After extensive research we found we were supporting formats that in all these years weren’t being used.

With a valid license key you’ll be able to update to this new version of the Property Import add on through WordPress. With it being such a big update we recommend that you take a backup first.

If you’re not already using Property Hive but are looking to automatically import your properties from your CRM, simply visit the add on page below to get started:

Property Import add on

The post Property Import Add On 3.0 Has Landed appeared first on Property Hive For WordPress.